Aḥmad b. ʿUmar al-Khaṣṣāf, Kitāb Adab al-qāḍī. Sections 10 and 22.

In this excerpt from his manual on judicial practice, Khaṣṣāf (d. 260–1/874–5) discusses the qualifications that ought to be present in a qāḍīand the procedures that he must follow to issue a valid judgment. “After listing the Quran, the Sunna of the Prophet, consensus, the precedent of the Prophet’s Companions and their followers (tābiʿūn), and personal discernment as valid bases for the qāḍī’s judgments, Khaṣṣāf adds that if jurisconsults are present in the city, the qāḍī might also consult them. If his opinion accords with theirs, he can issue a judgement accordingly; alternatively, he might use his own reasoning if their views do not converge. If his own view disagrees with all of theirs, he may write to other jurisconsultsin other cities and judge accordingly. In her chapter in Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, Nahed Samour uses this passage to point to the presence of other professional figures in court, such as jurisconsults (muftīs), who, by virtue of their juridical knowledge, compete and cooperate with the qāḍīin judicial consultations.

This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, ed. Intisar A. Rabb and Abigail Krasner Balbale(ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of primary sources and other material used in and related to the book.

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